Exploring Austin: An Onboard Lap Of The Track With Dani Pedrosa

Submitted by David Emmett on Mon, 2013-04-15 18:00

With the Grand Prix of the Americas just a few days away, it's time to take a look at the circuit from another perspective. The footage accumulated by the Repsol Honda team during the private test at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin just keeps on coming, the team having worked closely with both the Red Bull Media House and GoPro organizations to provide assistance.

Today's video comes courtesy of the Repsol Media Service, and is an onboard lap of the circuit shot from the perspective of multiple GoPro Hero 3 cameras mounted on the Honda RC213V of Dani Pedrosa. From the footage, it is clear that Pedrosa is pushing on, but he still has the presence of mind of readjust a camera which had slipped during the lap, despite circulating at speeds far beyond the reach of mere mortals. It is a keen illustration of exactly how focused top MotoGP riders are, and how intense their attention to detail.

When he is close behind Marquez, you can hear the difference in sound of your own bike from the saddle and the sound from 'outside' the bike. From the saddle, there is more induction roar, which sounds lower and throatier. From the outside, it is mainly exhaust noise and it sounds more metallic and screaming, like we usually hear the Hondas.

That said, the sound at tv coverages of almost all motorsports is usually very poor, with most of the sound suppressed and also seemingly very limited in bandwidth, giving a thin, unrealistic buzz. There I see much room for improvement to add to the spectacle of watching racing. Sound is so important!

They look more like frame sliders. If they were winglets wouldn't they be in front of the scoop to direct air in? these are behind the vent. Also, looks like they had them on in the Qatar race as well.

I suspect that the winglets on the Honda have more to do with extracting air from the side vents and helping cool the bike. That was one of the functions of the winglets on the Ducati, and this looks like taking a different approach for a similar effect. This, however, is just a guess.